India's No. 1 hopes hit by Gambhir injury

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Press Trust Of India
Posted on Sep 10, 2009 at 23:08 Updated Sep 10, 2009 at 23:19 Comment 0 CommentsEmail Email Print PrintTags: india, tri-series, ms dhoni
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Colombo: Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Thursday conceded the team will miss Gautam Gambhir and revealed Dinesh Karthik will don the opener's role in the ongoing Compaq Cup cricket tri-series here.
Gambhir will return home without playing a single match owing to a groin injury, which would mean India would miss both their regular openers since Virender Sehwag is also out of action following a shoulder surgery.
In such a scenario, Dhoni said Karthik would open the innings along with Sachin Tendulkar.Also read:
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"Dinesh Karthik will open tomorrow because he is doing well in the net sessions also because and we do not have a replacement right now," Dhoni said on the eve of India's tournament opener.
"Dinesh has done that job in the West Indies and has done well for us in Test series also. Definitely he will open tomorrow," he said.
"Best opener Sachin Tendulkar is also there," he added.
Dhoni said Gambhir picked up the injury during the BCCI Corporate Trophy but nothing could be done about that.
"I think it was during the corporate tournament (that he picked up the injury), if I am not wrong. But I think in the batting session it got aggravated," Dhoni said.
"So that is a big blow of course as he has really done well for us in the past one-and-half years", he said.